Products Liability
Practice Overview
Products liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries and deaths those products cause. Many products that you use in the workplace, or that you use in your daily life, have dangerous defects due to the way they were designed, manufactured, or due to inadequate warnings explaining how the product can cause serious injury or death. Dangerous and defective products which may cause injury and death to consumers and workers include cars, trucks, ATVs, boats, forklifts, material handling equipment, shelving, welding and engineering equipment, construction equipment, power tools, saws, farm equipment, airplanes, gas-powered utilities and equipment, medical and surgical equipment, firearms, children's toys and furniture, household appliances, and many other types of products and equipment that you are used to seeing and using in the workplace and at home. Often, manufacturers and sellers of products and equipment provide guarantees or warranties about how a product is safe, and how it can be safely used at home or at work without causing injury or death. When the product does not perform as it was warranted, and when it causes injury or death, claims exist for breach of warranty as well as possibly for negligent design, manufacture, and failure to warn.
Smith Elliott has been at the forefront of Product Liability claims in Maine since our inception in 1945. Our lawyers have served in leadership roles nationally with the American Trial Lawyers Association now the American Association for Justice. We have served locally on the boards of the Maine Trial Lawyers and the Maine Bar Association. Smith Elliott is proud of the contribution we have made to making America a safer place to live, work and raise a family. We have seen and contributed to development of safety features like seat belts, air bags, anti lock brakes, reinforced seat backs and door latches and radial tires in the automotive industry; safer baby walkers, high chairs, play pens and cribs; safer lawn mowers, chain saws and other power tools; the elimination or redesign of ATV's, personal watercraft and other motorized recreational vehicles; safer swimming pools, diving boards, water slides and spas; the elimination of lead paint, asbestos and flammable clothing; better and safer heart valves, IUD's, breast implants, knee and hip prostheses, surgical stents and mesh; and improved industrial equipment like forklifts and cranes. Smith Elliott was one of three firms selected to represent the State of Maine in its product liability claim against the tobacco industry to recover medical expenditures made by the State to cover treatments for lung cancer.
At Smith Elliott, we recognize how dangerous and defective products can cause life-long injuries and pain and impact an injured person's entire family and well-being. As a result, our product liability team travels cross-country to battle some of the largest and wealthiest manufacturers of products used both in and outside of the workplace to make those products safer, and to make our clients whole. In Maine, we work alongside Maine businesses to ensure that products shipped to their workplace -- and worked with by our Maine people - are safe. We prove that catastrophic workplace injuries are often due to third party negligence -- that of the manufacturer -- and not the safety practices or procedures of our Maine employers or their employees. Simply said, when workplace or consumer products are dangerous, defective, and unsafe, and cause injury or death, Smith Elliott works with our clients to make the responsible parties pay. We have produced some of the highest verdicts and settlements in the State.
